SASKATOON MEAT PLANT CLOSED AFFTER E. COLI RECALL

The frozen beef products affected by a growing E. coli-related recall all came from a Saskatoon-based food-processing plant that has since stopped operations, a government official said Tuesday.

Garfield Balsom, food safety and recall specialist with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said all the beef burgers and steakettes in question were made by New Food Classics in a Saskatoon plant, which has since gone into receivership.

“This establishment is no longer in business,” he said.

Balsom said operations at this plant stopped after the CFIA began an investigation related to this recall on Feb. 15 as a result of a complaint of involving someone who had become ill after consuming products from this business.

The CFIA’s first recall was issued Feb. 18. On Tuesday, it was expanded to include the more than 135 products now being taken off shelves for fear they could be contaminated with E. coli.

The products have been distributed nationally to stores, restaurants and institutional establishments, said the CFIA, a federal government agency.

The products were made at the Saskatoon plant between July 1 last year and Feb. 15. Balsom could not comment on whether there was a connection between the current recall and the plant’s closure.